Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/17/2015 President Barack Obama late last week signed a presidential order creating a national monument in the Basin and Range area of southeastern Nevada, while potentially putting the future of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage site at further risk. The Basin and Range monument includes an area that would […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/17/2015 The Obama administration this week nominated Jessie Roberson to fill the vacancy on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Roberson, who currently serves as Vice Chair of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board, would return the commission to its full five members. If approved by the Senate, she would represent the […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/17/2015 The Department of Energy is moving forward with the generic design of an interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility, according to a sources sought notice issued on FedBizOpps this week. The notice seeks interested small business-qualified contractors to prepare a generic design for a pilot facility and a Topical […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/17/2015 Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) last week successfully attached an amendment to the Senate’s Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations bill that would invoke an International Joint Commission review of Ontario Power Generation’s proposed deep geologic repository in Kincardine. OPG plans to dispose of intermediate and low-level […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/17/2015 AREVA announced this week it will provide engineering services for nuclear site decommissioning across the United Kingdom nuclear complex. Working with the UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Shared Services Alliance, AREVA will work across twelve sites throughout the UK managed by decommissioning company Magnox Ltd., as well as the nuclear […]

RW Monitor 7/17/2015 IN DOE Department of Energy Inspector General Gregory Friedman this week announced his plans to retire after serving for 17 years as DOE’s internal investigative official. Friedman will step down effective Oct. 3, 2015, which would end his run as longest-serving federal inspector general at a cabinet-level agency. “While the mission is […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/10/2015 The Department of Energy issued a Request for Proposals this week for its Deep Borehole Field Test procurement, according to a notice issued on FedBizOpps. DOE is hoping to expand its research and development efforts for deep boreholes after the disposal method has been recommended multiple times for some […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/10/2015 International Isotopes and the Lea County Board of Commissioners have agreed to amend the parameters of its depleted uranium de-conversion facility land agreement so as to allow for the company’s delays in construction, the two announced yesterday. Under the terms of the agreement, Lea County would convey 640 acres […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/10/2015 The losing teams in the Chalk River Government-owned Contractor-operated contract procurement do not have any avenue to protest the award, according to a Public Works and Government Services Canada spokesman last week. Canada used a third party independent fairness monitor to ensure the procurement abided by all rules and […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/10/2015 The Zion decommissioning completed the successful completion of the first large commercial reactor vessel segmentation in the United States, EnergySolutions announced this week. According to the company, the segmentation of the Unit 2 Reactor Vessel finished in late June, a month after the first of 17 segments of the […]

Lance Moore RW Monitor 7/10/2015 Utah effectively merged the Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste and the Division of Radiation Control into one state division last week under the state’s Department of Environmental Quality. The state legislature had passed a bill earlier this year to combine the two divisions in an effort to streamline efficiency […]

Lance Moore RW Monitor 7/10/2015 The Department of Energy has been seeking to better understand on-the-ground conditions at shutdown plant sites as they relate to the movement of spent nuclear fuel, DOE Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Nuclear Energy John Kotek said June 26 at a Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee meeting. As the […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 7/10/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission remains on-schedule to complete the Yucca Mountain supplemental Environment Impact Statement within the estimated timeframe of 12-15 months, according to the NRC’s monthly update to congressional leaders on Nuclear Waste Fund expenditures. “The Commission has approved the staff’s schedule and revised cost estimate for completing […]

RW Monitor 7/10/2015 IN THE INDUSTRY Cabrera Services named Rob Flowers President and Chief Operating Officer, the company announced last week. Flowers has served as COO for the company since last year, but this marks an additional responsibility. “Rob has done a tremendous job firming up our corporate infrastructure and I look forward to utilizing […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/26/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved exemptions late last week that enable Vermont Yankee to tap into its decommissioning trust fund to pay for spent fuel management costs. Entergy, the site operator, sought the exemption to help pay for activities related to moving spent fuel to dry cask storage, including […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/26/2015 Changes are needed in the nation’s management of spent nuclear fuel at reactor sites, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said late last week in a letter to Senate leaders. Healey wrote the letter in support of legislation introduced earlier this year by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/26/2015 A defense-only repository would prove cost effective and time efficient compared to comingling it with commercial waste, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said in a May 15 letter to House Energy leaders, released this week. House lawmakers previously questioned the wisdom behind the decision to “de-comingle” the two waste […]

As is our annual practice, RW Monitor will not publish next week in observance of the July 4th holiday. The next regular issue will be in your inbox July 10. The Weapons Complex Morning Briefing will continue to be published Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and we will issue bulletins should any major news break […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/26/2015 The CH2M-led Canadian National Energy Alliance team has won the contract to manage the Government-owned Contractor-operated contract for the Chalk River Laboratories, the Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Greg Rickford announced this week. The CNEA team also includes the Fluor Government Group – Canada, Inc.; EnergySolutions Canada Group LTD.; […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/26/2015 Nuclear Regulatory Commission members questioned this week the benefits of applying Compatibility ‘B” distinction to the proposed 10.CFR.61 rule update during a NRC hearing on the Part 61 rulemaking. With a Compatibility ‘B’ distinction, the proposed rulemaking would require that the Agreement States adopt Part 61 almost exactly as […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/26/2015 The Department of Energy plans to complete by the end of this year the Environmental Impact Statement on the preferred alternative for the disposal of Greater Than Class C waste and GTTC-like waste, DOE-EM’s Director of the Office of Disposal Operations Doug Tonkay said last week at the EPRI […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/26/2015 The Department of Energy plans to issue a Request for Proposal next month for its Deep Borehole Field Test procurement, according to a pre-solicitation notice issued yesterday. DOE is hoping to expand its research and development efforts for deep boreholes after the disposal method has been recommended multiple times […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/26/2015 The Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee has delayed its hearing on pending nuclear waste legislation until Aug. 4. The committee had planned to hold a hearing on the legislation in early July, but it appears to have postponed the hearing. Calls to committee were not returned this week. […]

RW Monitor 6/26/2015 IN THE 2016 ELECTION                                    Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton voiced her opposition late last week to Yucca Mountain, according to an interview she gave with the Reno Gazette-Journal. Clinton has long opposed the project going as far back to her initial presidential run in 2008, and she re-voiced those concerns. “I have opposed […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/19/2015 Two draft bills emerged this week that would amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act to allow for the consolidation of spent nuclear fuel at interim storage facilities. Rep. Michael Conaway (R-Texas), Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, plans to introduce a bill in the near future that would enable […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 6/19/2015 EnergySolutions plans to submit by October responses to Utah’s questions concerning their depleted uranium performance assessment, EnergySolutions’ Senior Vice President of Commercial Business Development Bret Rogers said this week at the EPRI Low-Level Radioactive Waste Conference in Orlando. Following the release of the state’s analysis of the PA, EnergySolutions […]